Summary
Michael continues relating the story of the future of
humankind to Adam. After the flood, humankind develops from a “second
stock”: Noah and his family (XII.7). Humans
now act more obediently to God than humans before the Flood, offering
sacrifices from their flocks and fields. However, several generations
later, a leader arrives with proud and ungodly ambitions. This upstart
is Nimrod, a tyrant who forces many men under his rule. He constructs
the Tower of Babel in an attempt to reach up to Heaven. As punishment,
God decrees that men will now speak different languages and be unable to
understand each other. Adam agrees with Michael that no one should
have dominion over other people, who are by nature free. Michael
qualifies this freedom: because of the fall, he says, men only have
true liberty when they obey “right reason,” or reason tempered by
conscience (XII.84). Still, Michael adds,
it remains a great sin for one person to take away the liberty of
another.
Continuing his story, Michael explains that God chooses
Israel as the one nation to rise above the rest. He takes one person,
Abraham, father of the Israelites, from a race that worships idols.
At God’s command, Abraham sets off from his native land and travels to
Canaan, the Promised Land. His descendants eventually move to Egypt,
and become enslaved by Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt. Finally, a man
named Moses is born, and he eventually leads the people out of
Egypt, through the plagues brought down upon the Pharaoh. Michael
tells how God allowed the Israelites to pass through the Red Sea,
then closed the waters around the Pharaoh’s army, which had come
to recapture the Israelites. The followers of Moses must travel
through the desert to return to Canaan, but they survive with the
help of God.
Adam is much relieved to hear that God will bless a portion
of humankind, after having it cursed for so long. But he does not understand
how all the laws given to these people can possibly be obeyed, or
how the Israelites are to remain just before God. Michael replies
that they cannot remain just, even if they obey the law, until a
greater sacrifice is made. He explains that after generations, the Israelites
will turn more and more to sin, until God decides to strengthen
their enemies. When they repent, God will save them from these same
enemies. After many different rulers, there will come a king named
David, and from his descendants will eventually come a Messiah,
or chosen one. This Messiah, also known as Jesus or the Son, will
once again bring together Earth and Heaven. However, he will have
to suffer for it: he shall be hated by many while he lives and will
be distrusted, betrayed, and punished by death. However, the grave
will not hold this Messiah for long, and rising up he will defeat
both Sin and Death, and bruise the head of Satan. His resurrection
fulfills the prophecy about the Son finally punishing Satan through
his sacrifice. Adam worries that the followers of Jesus will be
persecuted, and Michael confirms that they will indeed be persecuted.
However, the Archangel says, from Heaven the Messiah will send down
the Holy Spirit to provide spiritual protection. But after the first
followers die, corrupt leaders as well as good ones will enter the
church. Thus those who genuinely follow the truth will still be prosecuted,
laments Michael: the world will continue to accommodate evil and
make it difficult for individuals to do good deeds. Finally, the
Messiah will return a second time, to judge all humankind and reunite
Heaven and Earth.
Adam is now more than comforted. He can hardly believe
that out of his evil deed so much good will come. Now, however,
it is time for him and Eve to leave Paradise. He comes down from
the mountain with Michael. Eve awakens from her sleep and tells
Adam that she has had an educating dream. Michael then leads the
couple to the gate of Eden. There he stands with other angels, brandishing
a sword of flame that will forever protect the entrance to Paradise. Slowly
and tearfully, Adam and Eve turn away hand in hand with Michael,
and wander out into a new world.
Analysis
The discussion between Adam and Michael about Nimrod and
the Tower of Babel provides Milton with an opportunity to express
his fundamental ideas about political and religious freedom. Adam’s admonishment
of Nimrod for trying to control other men is the most extreme example
of Milton’s distrust of institutions and his absolute faith in the
ability of the individual person to make his own decisions. Humankind’s
freedom has already been restricted by the fall, but humankind can
still obey reason if individuals think and act separately and for
God. When individuals use reason in this way, then they possess
true freedom. However, because of Adam’s sin, humankind will find
it difficult to always follow reason; when an individual strays
from God and from reason, he becomes a slave to passions and desires,
and is thus not truly free at all, but becomes a slave to desire.
This paradox is the reason why Milton did not feel that total individual
freedom, within the Church for example, would result in anarchy.
Each person can act separately with reason and obey God. The rest
of Michael’s discourse follows the biblical accounts closely. He
progresses through the Old Testament, working his way through the
most significant events until he comes to the line of King David,
the line from which the Messiah would come. When Milton comes to
Jesus’ birth, he works more of his own personal interpretations
into the biblical story. When Adam asks Michael how the Israelites
could possibly follow all of the laws that God gave them, which
are contained in the four books following Genesis in the Bible,
Milton begins a brief discussion of the Christian view of Old Testament
law. Through the vision, Milton explains that law can identify and
punish wrongdoing but cannot abolish or eradicate it completely.
Without a proper remedy for Adam’s sin, attempts to obey God’s law
only emphasize humankind’s sinfulness, according to Christian belief.
This lack of a remedy is why the Israelites failed time and again
to keep their covenant with God. When a worthy sacrifice is made,
when Jesus offers himself on the cross, only then could humankind
be capable of doing anything pleasing to God.
Adam brings up the pivotal concept of the fortunate fall,
which asserts that the fall of humankind is fortunate for several
reasons. Adam and Eve’s disobedience allows God to show his mercy
and temperance in their punishments and his eternal providence toward humankind.
This display of love and compassion, given through the Son, is a
gift to humankind. Humankind must now experience pain and death,
but it can also experience mercy, salvation, and grace in ways it
would not have been able to had Adam and Eve not disobeyed. While
humankind has fallen from grace, it can redeem and save itself through
a continued devotion and obedience to God. The salvation of humankind,
in the form of the Son’s (Jesus’) sacrifice and resurrection, can
begin to restore humankind to its former state. In other words,
good will come of sin and death, and humankind will eventually be
rewarded. This fortunate result justifies God’s reasoning and explains
his ultimate plan for humankind.
